The Book Thief---Stealing Back Freedom

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is the story of a young girl in Germany in the midst of World War II. What separates this wonderful book from the World War II novels that have come before it is that it has a unique narrator: Death. Zusak’s “Death” is not the normal grim-reaper character that one would usually imagine. In fact, this “Death” is a compassionate, but dutiful worker who has quite a difficult and labor intensive job carrying away the souls of those who fall victim to the war. “Death” is intrigued by the story of reader Liesel Meminger.

It is hard to explain The Book Thief without giving away parts of the book and it is so good, I want readers to discover the book on their own, so I’ll do my best to keep this with few spoilers. Liesel has been sent to live with foster parents from a young age. She and her family do their best to stay true to their own beliefs in an environment that hardly allows them to do so. How do you maintain your freedom in a society that takes that right away from you? Liesel attempts to find a way. She becomes a thief, of books specifically. She “acquires” these novels from all over, from a graveside to the Mayor’s own library.

Liesel is a really good protagonist. She reminded me a lot of Sara Crewe from the film (and novel) A Little Princess, which is one of my personal favorites, therefore probably explains my attachment. Both girls use the power of stories to help bring hope to the upsetting situations they find themselves in. Liesel is a wonderful combination of youthful wonder and innate wisdom. She is a child doing her best to grow-up and find herself in horrific times. Liesel is inspiration for many young girls in her courage and her ability to care about other human beings.

Parent/Teacher Advisory: It should be noted that although this is a YA novel in America, in Australia, where the author is from, this was a novel intended for adults. Considering who the narrator is and the time period, it should be obvious that there are many deaths in the novel. It is not necessarily a novel for the faint of heart, but the story is so powerful that it is worth hearing. The violence is entirely necessary to explain the direness of the situation. That said, the novel is very sad. The tragic storyline and the length of the novel (it’s over 500 pages long—but it goes by REALLY fast) are something to consider before recommending to younger readers.

Overall Recommendation: The Book Thief is not only one of the best YA books I have read recently, it is also one of the best novels I have read this year…period. It is so good I cannot find the right words to explain it. This is ironic because that is what the novel is all about: the power of words. Language and words were tools used to bring about hate and destruction in Nazi Germany; however, they are also the devices that help Liesel rebel and bring hope and a small amount of freedom to herself and those closest to her. It is a powerful examination about the impact of books and the importance of reading and that is a message that it I hope girls take away from The Book Thief. It is an excellent lesson for everyone to learn.

I Am the Messenger—But what is the message?

I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak is a fun, yet poignant novel about a young man finding his purpose. Our protagonist is a nineteen year-old cab driver named Ed Kennedy. When we first meet Ed, his life is not going very well. He is stuck in a dead end job, he has fractured relationships with his family, and he has good friends, but they are sort of trapped going through the motions in the same way that Ed is. Then one day a mysterious card arrives on Ed’s door, an ace of diamonds and his life changes forever.

The reader follows Ed as he “protects the diamonds”, “survives the clubs”, “digs deep through the spades” and “feels the hearts”. Ed learns some powerful life lessons and his story and those involved on his journey are heart-warming. I don’t want to say much else about the plot because it all hinges on the mystery of who is sending Ed the cards (or does it?...hmm).

Girls will have fun traversing the clues Ed is given and trying to solve his mystery alongside him. I also found the character of Audrey very interesting. Audrey is one of Ed’s best friends and the object of Ed’s affection. Unfortunately, she does not return his affections (or so she tells him). Audrey is interesting. She could have been another girl-on-a –pedestal character, but Zusak does a good job of shaping her character. She is flawed and has a bit of a wild/flighty tendency, but Ed drops hints that she had trouble in her past and her own comments suggest that she is a broken soul that wants to mend, but just isn’t quite ready to yet. The way she pushes Ed away because she cares about him too much is an emotion that I think a lot of girls are familiar with.

Parent/Teacher Advisory: There are some briefs discussions about sex, but nothing super explicit. It is most just Ed pinning for Audrey (teen boy drama). Also, there are a couple of scenes of violence. Ed’s mission requires him to do some things that would normally be considered too violent, but I think the novel does a good job of showing the consequences of violence to counter-act its usage in the novel.

Overall Recommendation: I Am the Messenger is a lovely story. Ed is a witty and insight narrator and it is fun to follow him on his journey. The clues are great. It is like solving a new puzzle with every new playing card. Some of the messages might be a little cheesy and the hearts section might be a little obvious, but sometimes you need a story like that. You need a story that makes you believe in the small things in life, the small moments where you can make a difference. Ed learns this lesson and many more. I’m sure girls will benefit from Ed’s tale and hopefully find some inspiration for their own lives.

My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park: Like a Spoonful of Sugar

My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger is like a spoonful of sugar. It is enticing, sweet, and it can help the medicine go down (or even just make a bad day a little better) in the most delightful way. It is a charming tale of three 11th grade students who are given the assignment to write about their best year. For our three narrators/protagonists, that was their ninth grade year.

This is the story of TC, Augie, and Alejandra, three very different, but equally endearing characters. The reader learns about their most excellent year through diary entries, class assignments, instant messages to each other and other friends, e-mail, and letters (some to famous women of the past—those were my favorites!). It is a unique and modern way to go about telling the drama of these teens’ lives.

It is a cute story about friendship and its importance in teen’s lives. Readers will each have their favorite characters because there is something to cling to in each of them. TC is a bit of a wise guy, but his interactions with a young deaf boy show a much deeper side and if that does not impress, his baseball knowledge will. Augie is lovely; he is a great friend to TC and Alejandra and has exquisite taste in Hollywood starlets (The cools kind of starlets from old Hollywood films---Natalie Wood! Lauren Bacall! Yay! ---not the flimsy Paris Hilton kind). Alejandra was the toughest for me to like a first. She seems almost too perfect (too smart, too sassy, too pretty and too talented at singing and dancing …). However, she grew on me and by the end I really liked how much she had grown as a character. Plus: 1.) She writes to Jacqueline Kennedy (fantastic choice) and then switches to Mary Poppins (a part of the book that I loved) 2.) She is the daughter of a diplomat and has a cool friend and correspondent in her former secret service agent Clint (I want a friend like Clint; you will too) 3.) She is a girl that has an opinion and she actually states it out-loud (most of the time the reader just gets to read the thoughts of their cool female narrators, but Alejandra speaks her mind. It’s kind of awesome!).

This book is not the most serious of the YA novels I have read so far, but it has a really good message. The multiple perspectives and different types of narration re-enforce the novels key theme of communication. As people, when we communicate with each other and learn to understand our differences, then we can build a community. What a great message that is! This may be a more utopian type of world than what exists today. ***Spoilers***In this book, being gay is very accepted, parents are involved in their children’s lives, and if you really need to, you can meet Julie Andrews (people said this is way too unrealistic and maybe it is, but you never know…Julie Andrews is a classy lady, maybe she would take the time to write to a kid that looked up to Mary Poppins, that needed Mary Poppins in their life). Maybe it is ok to sometimes read about a world that is like our own, but a little bit better. Maybe the lessons that we learn from taking another perspective, like in the previous post for We Were Here, will be something we’ve gotten used to and we’ve moved past that someday. Isn’t it valuable to have some books that we read send a message that someday we’ll be able to move beyond those super serious conflicts? I think it is.

Parent/ Teacher Advisory: There are issues of love, identity, sexuality, and death discussed, but for the most part it is one of the tamest YA novels I have read. I will say though that it amused me how the adults in the novel did not seem to have much authority and some people may find that a little troubling; but, I would argue that these parents are at least very involved and accepting of the children and the choices their kids make, which is a very good thing, in my opinion.

Overall recommendation: I loved the pop-culture references throughout the novel; they were so great (and they were mostly historical, so the book won’t be dated in a few years)! The writing style takes a little while to get used to because of how often the narration switches and all the various ways in which information is coming to the reader, but once you get used to it, you can admire the effort it most have taken to put all of that together into a cohesive story. My Most Excellent Year is a little unrealistic, everything fits together much too neatly. However, I don’t think this devalues the work; the emotional arcs of the characters and their wit and humor are still easy to relate to, even if the plot is not. Basically, like I said before, the novel is like a spoonful of sugar. It is really good sometimes, but you cannot have it all the time or it will make you sick. This is a very sweet novel (I enjoyed it!), but in some ways, it does not have the highest literary nutritional value. That does not take away from its importance in the realm of YA novels. It offers an uplifting experience that is not always present in other novels. So read it for fun on a day when you need help escaping your own problems and it will help in its own way, like swallowing some medicine with a spoonful of sugar.

We Were Here- You Just Have to Stop and See Us Every Once and Awhile

It is always important to think about another person’s perspective. It is a skill that is helpful for life and you can begin learning it through literature. We Were Here by Matt de la Peña is from the perspective of a young, half-Hispanic boy, Miguel, who has been placed in a group home for one year as punishment for a crime (a crime that is kept as secret from the reader until the end of the novel).

We Were Here is a combination of road trip book mixed with a story of a young man coming to terms with his own guilt. There are some fun characters like Miguel’s group-home friends Mong and Rondell and his surfer-dude counselor, Jaden. I personally found Mong’s female cousin to be an amusing and fun character. I would also like to mention that I think Miguel’s mother is a very interesting character. Though she is not really in the story that much, she has a huge presence in Miguel’s life. Her character brings up issues about the importance of parenting and the way children crave their parents’ love, especially when they make mistakes. (I thought I should definitely mention her importance in the novel. I think it is very interesting that so far, the YA novels that I have reviewed with protagonists that are a minority, their mother have a deep impact in their lives. I’m not sure what that means yet; it is just an intriguing observation.)

Another part of We Were Here that I really enjoyed was the way that Miguel develops a passion for reading at the group home. He offers great insight into classic novels like The Color Purple, Of Mice and Men, and The Catcher in the Rye. Miguel’s reading offers a strong message for readers. Like Miguel, readers can find things to relate to in a variety of different types of novels, regardless of their own background. I also was just happy to see a main character with a love of reading!

Miguel is a wonderfully complex character, which makes him a great narrator for this story. The reader gets to follow Miguel on a journey of self-realization and, in turn, the reader gets to learn about their own prejudices. We Were Here is sometimes a hard story to read. The characters come from harsh backgrounds and it is upsetting to think of the lack of control these teens have had about the environment they come from. But a good lesson for girls to learn is that sometimes the best stories are not the easiest ones to tell. The best stories challenge you to expand your horizons. Matt de la Peña's novel is the story of children you see, but pay little attention too. They are the real children left behind, or at least left out of society’s mind. This book makes you care about these youths story. It makes you pay attention to those who are normally forgotten. Have you ever felt forgotten, or even lonely? Wouldn’t you want someone to care about your story?

There was a lot of controversy surrounding this book when we read it in my YA Literature class. Some people thought it was a hard book to relate to because Miguel’s story was so extremely different from their everyday lives. On the other hand, there were other members of our class that were so happy to finally read a novel that spoke to them. Our discussion of this book was one of the most passionate we have had all semester, which to me means that this book is certainly addressing topics and concerns that are not available in other YA selections and that makes it worth giving a chance.

Parent/Teacher Advisory: There is a lot of profanity in the novel and some violence and references to sexual behavior. The elements, though, add to the authenticity of the novel’s setting. However, some may find these elements to be unsuitable for younger readers.

Overall recommendation: We Were Here is a good novel; and, it is great that its main character is a minority. There should be many more novels, especially YA novels with minority protagonists. This is not to say that this novel alienates any readers or that one cannot relate to the characters in the novel. In fact, I would say the opposite. The way Miguel learns to not judge Mong and Rondell after he reads their files is a great example for all readers to understand there is so much more to people than first impressions. You get to learn so much alongside these characters that the sometimes difficult issues of the novel: race, juvenile delinquency, forgiveness, social schisms, poverty, while very important, end up being complimentary to, not overshadowing of the novel’s emotional reliability. These characters’ doubts and fears, and struggles to find who they will become, are universal. It is a different viewpoint than most girls will find in YA literature and that uniqueness itself warrants a consideration.

Another Halloween Treat- Four and Twenty Blackbirds

Halloween Special #2: Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest is the story of Eden Moore. Eden is a typical young girl who longs to know the true story of her family’s past in order to understand her own identity…except there is one catch; Eden can hear ghosts. She can see them too, but it is three particular spirits, the ghosts of three sisters, whose words guide Eden on her mission to discover her family’s history. Readers will enjoy Priest's complex and interesting characters (and even if you don’t like their personalities all the time, you’ll love their names. Malachi…Miabella…Awesome! Southern Gothic novels are great if you are looking for good character names. It is almost a guarantee of the genre) Eden is a wonderful protagonist (one of my newest favorites) She is strong and capable lady. You will be glad she is your guide through this story of witchcraft and betrayal. An eerie modern Southern Gothic tale, Four and Twenty Blackbirds is a fun, creepy read. It’s a perfect spooky delight.

Note: Eden Moore’s story continues in Wings to the Kingdom and Not Flesh Nor Feathers; although I have not read either of these yet, so I cannot fully recommend them. After Four and Twenty Blackbirds, though, I intend to check them out!

Halloween Treat- We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Halloween Special #1: We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a 1962 novel by Shirley Jackson. It is a fabulous Southern Gothic novel that is perfect for Halloween, or any other time you are in the mood for a good suspense story. Though not exactly a YA novel, it is a good story for that audience. I do not want to give too much away because one of the novel’s greatest assets is its secrecy. I will say that the novel is narrated by Mary Katherine "Merricat" Blackwood of the notorious Blackwood family. She, her sister Constance, and her Uncle Julian are the remaining descendents of the Blackwoods, a family that has become a town legend due to its tragic demise and the odd behavior of the family members that have been left behind. ***Spoilers: The Blackwood clan was poisoned by arsenic. The reasons behind this and the reasons why these last three Blackwoods remain is part of the great mystery of the novel***. Merricat is an audacious and highly unreliable narrator, but she and her sister Constance are great complicated female characters. Of course they are quirky and a little weird, but their oddities just make the reader have more affection for them. They have to overcome a lot and their loyalty and dependence on each other is good message about female relationships. But if that does not intrigue you, the story itself should. It is a decevingly simple narrative with a good morality lesson hidden within. The way the people of the town treat the Blackwoods is maybe even darker and more frightening than the Blackwoods past. It is a great spooky tale. I highly recommend it!

Note: If you like We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Jackson is also the author of the creepy short-story, The Lottery and another novel of hers, The Haunting of Hill House, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Both of these are eerie and great as well.

Graceling- A Different and More Dangerous Type of Fantasy Love

Graceling by Kristin Cashore is the story of Katsa, a young girl born with a particular Grace. A grace is a certain skill that an individual has that they excel at more than most people. Gracelings are marked with two different color eyes; Katsa has one blue eye and one green eye. The drama in Katsa’s story is that her grace is the ability to kill (quite a deadly grace). Because of her special skill, Katsa is sent on missions by The Council, a highly authoritative group. Katsa does not really enjoy this work, but she accepts the position she is in with her unique ability. On one particular mission, though, Katsa meets another graceling named Po, who changes her life forever.

Katsa and Po have quite a love story. They go on crazy adventures and learn more about their graces, each other, and themselves. It seems to me to be pretty much a typical fantasy story (though I do not have a huge amount of experience with this genre) mixed with a coming-of-age tale. I thought it was interesting that Cashore decided to use a less-modern dialect for the dialogue, but it fits with the fantasy world and gives the book sort of a timeless quality. Also Katsa and Po’s love story is less conventional than I was worried it was going to be. Once you find out what Po’s grace is, it leads to discussions about gender roles in relationships and even some morality questions. ***Spoilers*** I also like the dynamics of their relationship. For example, in the beginning Katsa needs Po to help her break free from her work for the King and then, in the end, Po ends up needs Katsa to help him with his new physical ailment. I really love though that Po does not try to change who Katsa is. He does not force her to marry him in the end. Po accepts who Katsa is and try to bring out the best in her. I think it would not be a bad thing for there to be more male characters like Po to set that example because that is the type of guy that a girl should be interested in, one that does not put a girl on a pedestal so much as they value her for who she truly is.

This story, though, is much more than a love story. It is the story of a young girl finding herself. Katsa is a very cool female narrator. She is not my favorite (she did grow on me though---give her a chance), but she is different and that is very important. It is good that there can be different types of female characters. Katsa has become a little hardened, understandably by her lifestyle of killing. She is a good person, but she can come off as aloof or selfish. I actually think it was important to include the relationship with Po because it allows the reader to see a much deeper side of her. It explains why she seems so distant. Katsa is complicated. It is hard to understand, or even like, her at first, but it is her complexity that really makes her a heroine, more than any skill she possesses.

Parent/Teacher Advisory: There are descriptions of violence; Katsa does kill people since her grace is killing. There are also a few scenes of sexual intimacy that, while neither graphic nor gratuitous, are definitely something for parents to be aware. Those who are worried about sexual content should preview the book first. It is not the main focus of the novel, but it is there. Also, Katsa has very strong views against marriage. There is not anything necessarily wrong what that, but I could see how some people having a problem with that since it is not a societal norm. It is something to be aware of while reading.

Overall Recommendation: I have to admit, this is not one of my favorite YA novels so far. Although, I did like it more after taking some time away from it and reflecting upon it. This is not really my best genre, but it is important to explore areas outside of your comfort zone and for the fantasy genre, Graceling is very accessible and is a good place to start. It touches upon some great themes like when is it ok to rebel? What does it really mean to love someone? Why do people accept societal conventions and rules? Katsa has a skill that could be used in very harmful ways. It is important to note as well that her enemy is a King that can manipulate peoples’ minds. So what is she really fighting? Is it this manipulative message that girls have to act in accordance with how society says they are supposed to? If these questions intrigue you, maybe this book will too! I really do see its value for girls who are interested in the fantasy genre. Katsa is a good heroine and her story is a good one to think about. She has to make some tough decisions and everyone can relate to making hard choices. It is only when Katsa finds an inner strength to match her outer skill that she succeeds and that is an important message for women of all ages to hear.